Ashour & Matthew Hold Onto Top Two World Ranking Slots

After both claimed major PSA World Tour titles last month, Egypt’s Ramy Ashour and Englishman Nick Matthew hold onto the top two positions in the April Dunlop PSA Men’s World Squash Rankings, published today by the Professional Squash Association.

Ashour moves into his fourth month as world number one after winning the 5-star CIMB KL Open in Malaysia in March.  Later in the month, in London, Matthew triumphed in the ISS Canary Wharf Classic – also a 5-star event – and has further closed the gap behind his Egyptian rival, in second place.

Egypt’s former world number one Amr Shabana holds onto third place in the list while Karim Darwish completes the trio of Egyptians in the top four by moving up to No4 – boosted by reaching the Kuala Lumpur final

After contesting three successive Tour finals in Canada last month – losing two to Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema but then winning the third against Hisham Mohd Ashour in Calgary – England’s Daryl Selby celebrates his top ten debut and a career-high No9 ranking.

The new ranking consolidates the 27-year-old from Essex’s position as the fourth highest-ranked Englishman in the list.

But Anjema also boasts a best-ever ranking – leaping four places to a career-high No11 after winning the National Bank Financial Group International in Montreal and the Manitoba Open in Winnipeg.

And a further Englishman has reasons to be cheerful as Jonathan Kemp celebrates his first appearance in the top 20 at No20, sharing the position with Pakistan’s Aamir Atlas Khan.

Left-hander Kemp made it through to the 13th Tour final of his career at last month’s Chennai Open in India.

April top 20 (inc. points average):

1        [1]       Ramy Ashour                     EGY     1190
2        [2]       Nick Matthew                    ENG     1117
3        [3]       Amr Shabana                     EGY     971
4        [5]       Karim Darwish                   EGY     740
5        [4]       James Willstrop                ENG     696
6        [6]       Gregory Gaultier                FRA     655
7        [8]       Thierry Lincou                    FRA     505
8        [7]       Peter Barker                      ENG     490
9        [12]     Daryl Selby                          ENG     412
10      [9]       David Palmer                     AUS     404
11      [15]     Laurens Jan Anjema        NED     378
12      [11]     Wael El Hindi                     EGY     342
13      [10]     Adrian Grant                       ENG     333
14      [13]     Alister Walker                    ENG     321
15      [14]     Cameron Pilley                  AUS     308
16      [18]     Mohd Azlan Iskandar       MAS    289
17      [16]     Mohamed El Shorbagy    EGY     286
18      [17]     Stewart Boswell                AUS     285
19      [19]     Ong Beng Hee                    MAS    272
20=   [21]     Jonathan Kemp                ENG     248
20=   [18]     Aamir Atlas Khan              PAK     248